Wake Up to Advent!: The Archbishop of York's Advent Book, 2019

By John Sentamu

‘This is the hour of crisis:
it is high time for you to wake out of sleep,
for deliverance is nearer to us now
than it was when first we believed.’

St Paul's encouraging words to the Christians in Rome are the springboard for the Archbishop of York's Advent book for 2019. With prayers and stimulating questions for reflection at the end of each daily meditation, here is fresh spiritual food for the Advent journey – pressed down, shaken together and running over.

‘Wake up! Clean up! Feed up! Grow up!’

Walk alongside Archbishop Sentamu this Advent, as he discusses the meaning and influence of those four gospel imperatives in this lively and invigorating book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SPCK
• Release date: Aug 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9780281083534

John Sentamu

The Most Revd and Rt Hon Dr John Sentamu has been Archbishop of York since 2005. Prior to that he was appointed Bishop for Stepney in 1996 and Bishop for Birmingham in 2002. His previous publications include On Rock or Sand? Firm Foundations for Britain's Future (SPCK, 2015) and John Sentamu's Faith Stories (DLT, 2013)

Book preview

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‘This is a book full of insight and anecdote, gracefully combined both to engage us and lead us forward in our life’s pilgrimage with Jesus.’

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster

‘This book is the perfect antidote to the stress and com-mercialism of our preparations for Christmas. Here is simple but satisfying food for prayer and reflection, shot through with personal stories and enlivened by a deep faith. This is soul food on which all can feed.’

Sir Philip Mawer, Canon Provincial of York

‘For those of us who find mornings difficult, the last thing we want is someone shouting to wake us up. More helpful is a hot invigorating drink! This delightfully written book does not shout at you to wake up, clean up, feed up or grow up. Rather, it stimulates and motivates, engaging intellect and heart, Bible and tradition. The Archbishop brings Advent to life, injecting hope into despair, urgency into complacency, and demonstrating God at work in the world.’

David Wilkinson, Principal, St John’s College, Durham

‘In a book packed with helpful biblical readings and inspiring personal stories, Archbishop Sentamu encourages us – and challenges us – to wake up, clean up, feed up and grow up in Advent. Here is an Advent Calendar to open daily, with mounting joy and expectation, as we prepare for Christmas.’

Jane Williams, Assistant Dean, St Mellitus College, London

Dedicated to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II:

with deep gratitude and thanksgiving for her

inspiring Christmas reflections.

(I have listened to them all, as

broadcast in real time, from 1953.)

First published in Great Britain in 2019

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

36 Causton Street

London SW1P 4ST

www.spck.org.uk

Copyright © John Sentamu 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

SPCK does not necessarily endorse the individual views contained in its publications.

The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the external website and email addresses included in this book are correct and up to date at the time of going to press. The author and publisher are not responsible for the content, quality or continuing accessibility of the sites.

Every effort has been made to seek permission to use copyright material reproduced in this book. The publisher apologizes for those cases in which permission might not have been sought and, if notified, will formally seek permission at the earliest opportunity.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978–0–281–08354–1

eBook ISBN 978–0–281–08353–4

1   3   5   7   9   10   8   6   4   2

Typeset by The Book Guild Ltd, Leicester

Printed in Great Britain by Jellyfish Print Solutions

eBook by The Book Guild Ltd, Leicester

Contents

About The Author

Foreword

Copyright Acknowledgements

Introduction

Week 1: Wake Up!

Collect for the First Sunday of Advent

Advent Sunday

The Sleep of Darkness (Romans 13.11–14)

Week 1: Monday

The Sleep of Unawareness (1 Thessalonians 5.1–11)

Week 1: Tuesday

The Sleep of Unpreparedness (Matthew 25.1–13)

Week 1: Wednesday

The Sleep of Withdrawal (Matthew 26.36–46)

Week 1: Thursday

Waking to the Promise of Hope (Isaiah 52.1–3, 7–11)

Week 1: Friday

Awaking into Life after Death (Revelation 21.1–4)

Week 1: Saturday

Awaking to Glory (Isaiah 60.1–3, 19–22)

Week 2: Clean Up!

Collect for the Second Sunday of Advent

Second Sunday Of Advent

Clean Up for Action (Ephesians 5.11–20)

Week 2: Monday

Clean Up to Find the Way (Matthew 7.13–16a)

Week 2: Tuesday

Clean Up from the Inside Out (Mark 7.20–23)

Week 2: Wednesday

Clean Up Wholeheartedly (Joel 2.12–13)

Week 2: Thursday

Clean Up to Join the Celebration (Matthew 22.11–14)

Week 2: Friday

Clean Up to Serve (Mark 1.29–31)

Week 2: Saturday

Clean Up for Life

Week 3: Feed Up!

Collect for the Third Sunday of Advent

Third Sunday Of Advent

Feed Up on God’s Word (John 1.1–5, 14)

Week 3: Monday

Feed Up for Ever (John 6.25–27, 33–35)

Week 3: Tuesday

Feed Up for Free (Isaiah 55.1–3a, 6–7)

Week 3: Wednesday

Feed Up in Obedience (Psalm 119.101–105)

Week 3: Thursday

Feed Up Young Minds (Psalm 119.9–16)

Week 3: Friday

Feed Up for Strength (1 Kings 19.4–9)

Week 3: Saturday

Feed Up in Communion with God and One Another

Week 4: Grow Up!

Fourth Sunday of Advent: Grow Up and Be Ready

Week 4: Monday

Grow Up for Transformation and Hope (Magnificat: Luke 1.39–56)

Week 4: Christmas Eve

Grow Up in Endurance and Courage (Luke 2.1–7)

Week 4: Christmas Day

‘Hark! the Herald Angels Sing’ (Luke 2.8–20)

Notes

About The Author

Dr John Sentamu practised law in Uganda before he came to the UK in 1974. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1979. Following ordination, he was Assistant Chaplain at Selwyn College, Cambridge, after which he was Assistant Curate at St Andrew’s, Ham, and Chaplain at Latchmere House Remand Centre. After serving as Assistant Curate at St Saviour’s and St Paul’s, Herne Hill, Dr Sentamu was Vicar of Holy Trinity and St Matthias, Tulse Hill, from 1983 to 1996. He was appointed Bishop of Stepney in 1996, then Bishop of Birmingham in 2002 and, latterly, Archbishop of York in 2005. He is Primate of England and Metropolitan, a member of the House of Lords and a Privy Councillor.

Foreword

A reader of the Archbishop of York’s Advent book is being asked to do something rather unusual. This is not the kind of book which those who still read books today are likely to be familiar with. It is not a book of entertainment or imagination, and neither is it a book of information. It is not even a book of argument, marshalling facts and reasons to persuade us of a conclusion. The author has quite different aims from these, and the reader must decide at the beginning that what he hopes to accomplish is worth cooperating with. We might call it a book of ‘formation’ – a book to help us to exist more authentically as God has called us to exist.

It is very simple to read through but difficult to read well.

In the first place, Wake Up to Advent! is addressed to anybody and everybody. It is not written for the special group of those who will understand the questions or who have the right interests to engage with it. It invites us to rediscover ourselves as part of a mixed audience of all backgrounds and interests, who share those key interests and concerns common to all human beings: how to live and die; how to form and execute purposes; how to overcome failure; how to believe in themselves, other people and God.

In the second place, it must be read slowly – just two or three pages on each of the 25 days from Advent to Christmas. Of course, the content can be thrown off in a moment, but then the book might as well be thrown away. It has to be allowed to penetrate our skin. Its stories need to haunt our minds, its claims allowed to irritate, excite and prompt new questions. One might even describe it as half a book, the other half being what the reader has to contribute in between times, while not actually reading it.

In the third place, it introduces the author to us personally. This is a book stamped with one man’s mind and character. The autobiographical references are few but, as we read his book, we come to know him. We are invited to share his reflections in Advent as we might be invited to share his home. We would not expose ourselves in that way to just anybody. But John Sentamu is someone with a claim on our attention, and not merely because he holds a position of ancient dignity. He has brought to his role an integrity tempered like steel in his own struggles for life, justice and joy. An exceptional man with an exceptional right to our interest when he talks about what it takes to live.

He draws our attention to a reality we usually lose sight of because it looms so large that we cannot look straight at it – the future. It is comparatively easy to think about the past, especially when we think mainly of what others have done, and to luxuriate in strong views of approval and disapproval. It is more difficult to think about what we ourselves have done because we quickly become defensive; yet, if we are honest, we can tell of our own past truthfully, too. Yet the future is a blank page on which imagination projects a thousand unreal and incompatible fantasies and fears. Except when we narrow our gaze to a well-defined project and think only of ways and means, we find it almost impossible to conceive of the future, even though we live facing it all the time. But to be responsible for ourselves means preparing ourselves for the tasks of living, even though we do not know what they will be like. In Advent, Christians face this challenge by reflecting on the theme of preparation. The author helps us to learn self-preparation, taking us through the steps that make us attentive and ready actors in the world: hope, expectancy, confidence, awareness of what has been done for us and what we can count on. He will help us to see the history in which we live as one in which God has prepared his way for us.

This is a book written out of the deep resources of the Christian belief that responsibility for oneself is closely tied to responsibility before God. Yet the reader who approaches the book without sharing that faith may still discover how its questions and challenges belong to every human being. To attend to what is involved in living in the world teaches us to ask about the love that moves all things and has power to renew them. And even if that love is still a question mark, not a certainty, attending to its claims can only make us more truly human.

Oliver O’Donovan

Professor Emeritus, Christian Ethics

and Practical Theology

University of Edinburgh

Copyright Acknowledgements

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Revised English Bible, copyright © Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press 1989.

Extracts marked kjv are from the Authorized Version of the Bible (The King James Bible), the rights in which are vested in the Crown, and are reproduced by permission of the Crown’s Patentee, Cambridge University Press.

Scripture quotations marked nrsv are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked rsv are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952 and 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Extracts from The Book of Common Prayer, the rights in which are vested in the Crown, are reproduced by permission of the Crown’s Patentee, Cambridge University Press.

Collects for